Justice League Unlimited – Episodes – Season 2, Episode 8 – Hunter’s Moon

Responding to a deep space distress call, Shayera leads her reluctant teammates Vigilante and Vixen into a deadly trap.

Originally titled "Mystery in Space".

Review by Bird Boy
Media by Bird Boy

Voices:
Maria Canals as Shayera
Phil LaMarr as Green Lantern
Carl Lumbly as J’onn J’onzz
Gina Torres as Vixen
Nathan Fillion as Vigilante
Elizabeth Pena as Paran-Dul
Hector Elizondo as Kragger
David Barrera as Hawk #2

As with “The Balance”, repeat viewings do wonders. I really didn’t like this episode when I first saw it and I just found it to be rather boring. Second time was much better, however—expectations were low since I had just watched it previously and I knew what to expect.

There were a few moments that I love; anything with Vigilante is great (especially his “I’m comin’ darlin’!” yell while in Paran Dul’s ship), as well as the flashback with Hro Talek. It filled in the spaces for those that wondered what happened to Hro and the other Thanagarians: while the Justice
League saved Earth, the Thanagarians lost their war and their home planet.
It was almost touching, if you forgot what totalitarian rulers they were in
“Starcrossed.”

The animation wasn’t anything spectacular in this episode, although the backgrounds (notably the one in screenshot number twenty-two) were gorgeous.
Loved the fight between Vixen and Paran Dul, with the wolverine claws and
Vigilante piloting the ship, despite not really knowing what he was doing.
Though it’s a bit disturbing that the Justice League pretty much just killed all of those Thanagarians, it was a fitting end to the Thanagarian story.

Fans of Firefly will have no doubt picked up on Nathan Fillion’s excellent Vigilante, offering almost the same cowboy portrayal that he gave in Firefly as Captain Malcolm Reynolds. In addition, Gina Torres (Zoe
Warren on Firefly) also came back as Vixen. While the two probably weren’t in the studio at the same time, it was a mini-reunion of sorts for the Firefly cast. Now if only Black Canary had had a speaking roll…

Overall it was a pretty good episode and wraps up the Thanagarian story, as well as giving some nice character bits between Vixen and Shayera. And the fact that we got to see more of Vigilante in action makes it a solid episode in my book.